The EB games around here where I have my pre-order does not open until 11 week days, so I too now have right at 2 more hours before I could get it. Unfortunately I will be in classes then, so it is more like 3-4 hours

I'm hoping I'm good to go...I'm guessing (think it was WarPig that said) that the fans were running at top speed when they were plugged into the other plug. DX 9.0b is installed (from Far Cry) and I went back to the latest nvidia drivers (which. with the far cry 1.1 patch, fixed a few graphics related problems I was having with FC). I double checked again to make sure ALL fans were running (proc, video card, 2 in the back, one in the front and one on the side).

Thanks for everyones input, I really appreciate it!

(Of course) The real test will be running timedemo about 10 times in D3 tonight...I figure if that doesn't kill my system, it's rock solid.

When the evening news was initially posted the text was all yellow, looks like it's been fixed now.

Did you try Mountain View?

I pretty much gave every store that sells PC games a call this afternoon. Gamestop Mountain View said they'd have it tomorrow morning.

And...you do have a pre-order, right?

Yeah, EB Games Sunnyvale. They don't get 'em until noon but I probably wouldn't get over there until then anyway, training again for the West Point Physical Aptitude Exam. I greatly look forward to the day where I will never have to throw a motherfucking basketball from the kneeling position again.

Yes, both fans are going. The stupid thing just runs warm. It is not drastic, but it is currently the hottest thing in my system - the back of the 6800 GT is just below room temperature and my heatsink, touching the fins right above the CPU, has minimal heat. Both are significantly cooler than the PSU.

Basically, I have to run it without the covers on. The moment I put them on, it can start heating up and, within two hours or so of heavy use, I will have issues due to heat. Immediately pop off the sides and you will notice the hot air. The CPU and GPU may be warmed, but that is due to ambient temperature - they cool off within a minute. Meanwhile, the PSU will be very hot to the touch.

No doubt something is amiss and it is giving off too much heat or the fan control is busted, but I will worry about the later when I rebuild my system in January. At that point, I will go with the NeoPower, even if only for its ACMS.

Nin,Perhaps a bit late for a post from the left coast, but if changing your power cables didn't solve your problem: the 6800gt seems to need Dx9.b, Dx9.c needs MS dot net framework. I also have an Antec 430w ps, basically the same configuration as yours with even more power requirements. Do you have access to a power supply tester in case all else fails?

Ray, I have an Antec 430 watt PS, and it has TWO fans (one sucking air into it, one blowing the air out the back) so there's no way it can get all that warm. Is one of the fans on your PS not functioning?

Gamestop actually called me tonight (it was a recorded message) stating that Doom3 would be ready to be picked up tomorrow morning. That confirmed what I was already told when I called them earlier today. I preordered, and paid for the game in full when I did - - I don't know if that had anything to do with it ...

Well, I know my Antec power supply has a feature that ramps the fans high or low depending on the case temp (if they're connected to the right plug).

We recommend connecting the fan to TruePower's Fan Only connector so that Low Noise Technology can control the RPM of the fan according to the temperature changes within the case.

Maybe yours has something like this also.

Edit: Oops, looks like banddirector already thought of this.

Also, I'm starting to think that Ray isn't going to be able to walk correctly out of whatever store he finally finds a copy of D3 in. He'll probably see the display with copies for sale and just make a mess right then and there. At least wear some baggy pants, Ray!

I thought this might be of interest to you guys. XBitLabs did a feature today on the summer's new videocards. It compares them to last year's games in a HUGE number of games. Lotsa benchmarks. Included are two especially interesting benches: Highly Anticipated DirectX 9 Game 1 and 2. Now, according to hints dropped in the explanation for the benches, Game 1 is a Half-Life 2 benchmark and Game 2 is a STALKER benchmark. It's quite interesting as I'm sure more than a few of you are wondering how your new videocards are gonna behave in HL2.

I'm still puzzling over whether or not to go for the vanilla 6800 or not. The 6800 GT is out of the question financially. I currently have a 9800 Pro which I expect to get around $150 for on ebay (or if someone here is willing to buy it :D) which brings the 6800 down to around $130. You guys think its worth it? Doom III I get a rather large boost but for many other games, it's only marginal. Then there's Linux, which doesn't behave well with my current Radeon (I frequently have to fiddle with drivers to keep 3D working). I tend to agonzie over these decisions. Help me out

EDIT: The XBitLabs feature was in the evening tech bits. Didn't even notice.

Try Gamestop - or call up its customer support line and complain about the service your received at the store, noting many (most?) are selling it toay and nearly all of them will be selling it tomorrow...

i'm 15 minutes from Cleveland - not remote by any means. the stores i called said that they have it but will not sell until wednesday because they don't want to be fined. the guy at best buy was almost rude about it - as though people have been asking him the same question all day.

This comment was edited on Aug 2, 22:22.

- tron ----"tron is big and tron is full of action... it's a hell of a ride!"-from the Tron 2.0 box